Documenting the Future

Now, a $6.7 million gift from the creator of MTV’s The Real World will establish a documentary filmmaking program at the Missouri School of Journalism. Murray’s gift is the single largest outright gift by an individual in J-School history and the only one that endows an entire program. The program will offer undergraduate and graduate degrees, and it is scheduled to launch in fall 2015.

“A documentary can be a wonderful way of elevating a conversation about a subject,” says Murray, who announced the gift Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. “A doc doesn’t necessarily have to tell you how to think, but hopefully it can get you to re-examine something and come to a more educated opinion.”

The program, which will be the first of its kind housed in a U.S. journalism school, will include new courses outlining the history of documentary journalism, business models for the craft, and a broadcast lab. It also will employ three new faculty members.

Jon Murray, BJ ’77, speaks to a group of journalism students at MU’s Reynolds Journalism Institute. Known as “the father of reality TV” for co-creating the MTV show The Real World, Murray’s $6.7 million gift to the J-School will establish a documentary journalism program at MU. Photo by Rob Hill.